Sports

LONDON — The 2022 World Cup will take place as planned in Qatar and the country has nothing to hide over allegations of corruption during the bid process, the tournament communications director, Nasser Al Khater, said on Wednesday.

“We’ve held ourselves to the highest ethical standards. We are confident of how we’ve behaved,” Khater said on Al Jazeera television. “We are not worried. The World Cup will take place in Qatar.”

Khater said his country would comply with the FIFA investigation into possible bid corruption but stressed Qatar had nothing to hide.

“Qatar is part of the investigation and so is Russia [2018]. The whole process is part of that. It’s unfortunate that people single out Qatar every time they discuss it,” he said.

He also distanced himself from disgraced former FIFA executive Mohamed Ben Hammam, saying he was not representing the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee in the bid process.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter said before the Brazil World Cup that it may have been a mistake to award the tournament to Qatar due to the intense heat in the summer, when temperatures can reach up to 50oC, and winter may be a better option.

Khater said either way his country can host the World Cup in the summer or winter.

“We are waiting on a task force to come back and make recommendations. Our plans won’t change, we are going to be ready whether it is the winter or summer,” he said.

He added that his committee was also doing everything it could to make working conditions safe in Qatar following criticism from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch on the alleged mistreatment of migrant workers, mostly from Nepal and India.

Khater said the 2022 World Cup would be a celebration and truly a Middle Eastern affair.

“These two billion people are going to be from various cultures, various ethnicities, various people from different parts of west Asia, the Middle East, north Africa and I think it is going to be rich and vibrant,” he said.

RIO DE JANEIRO — After putting on what was widely considered the best-ever World Cup in terms of entertainment FIFA is unlikely to make wholesale changes to the way the game is played but at the professional level some issues need addressing.

Football’s authorities are proud of the fact that football’s 17 laws have remained fundamentally unchanged for over 100 years but, in reality, there have been regular adjustments and shifts of emphasis that have altered many aspects of the game.

The definition of foul play is the same now as it was in 1950 yet tackles that were considered part and parcel of the game then would be immediately penalised now and perhaps draw a yellow or red card — innovations introduced in 1970.

The offside law was once black and white, routinely explained to the uninitiated with salt and pepper pots.

Now there is a whole “active” element to benefit the attacking side that means even experts and pundits can disagree over whether a player is on or off.

The latest innovation to make its World Cup debut in Brazil was goalline technology.

In use without any problems in England’s Premier League last season, this advance has few opponents despite FIFA dragging its heels for so long before England midfielder Frank Lampard’s laughably disallowed goal against Germany four years ago finally forced their hand.

Next level

Some observers are now talking about the next level of technological interference — the use of TV replays to aid the match officials, particularly in the case of offside.

In general, replays do a great job of highlighting just how superbly efficient linesmen are when it comes to offside decisions, despite the routine howls of protest from players and fans when they go against them.

Opponents claim the wait for a replay decision would “slow the game down” but for a tournament like the World Cup, with cameras and replays available in an instant, it would make little time difference if decisions were routinely reviewed, as in rugby.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter opened this World Cup by floating the idea of each team having two or three “challenges”, as in cricket, where the tension of awaiting the outcome on the big screens has become part and parcel of the fan experience.

That is unlikely to come about soon, but one area the game’s overseers do need to address is how and why referees have decided to allow a virtual wrestling free-for-all at every corner and free kick.

When Brazil’s Fred tumbled to the ground after feeling the slight presence of the hand of Croatia’s Dejan Lovren in the tournament’s opening game, supporters of the striker claimed he was fully entitled to fall over because “there was contact”.

Yet at corners defenders have no compunction about wrapping both arms around an attacker, gripping his arm or virtually tearing the shirt off his back, safe in the knowledge that nothing will be done.

Referees routinely delay the taking of a kick to hand out a stern lecture and then do absolutely nothing when the players ignore him seconds later. Not one penalty was awarded for such an offence that, if carried out on the halfway line, would earn a certain booking.

Unenviable task

The referees have no excuse for ignoring this behaviour, even if there seems to be a tacit agreement not to penalise it, but when it comes to diving and “simulation” they have an unenviable task.

Arjen Robben was roundly abused for diving to gain the last-gasp penalty that gave the Netherlands a 2-1 win over Mexico in the second round yet his supporters said he had every right to fall over the outstretched leg of Rafa Marquez.

During the third-place play-off Brazil midfielder Oscar suffered the ignominy of becoming the only player in all 64 matches to be booked for diving.

He was outraged as his leg was eventually clearly taken from under him but that happened only because he had dragged it beneath him in an unnatural gait, which is adopted by some players inside the area in an attempt to “win” a penalty.

It was an important action by Algerian referee Djamel Haimoudi, showing that officials are not always going to be hoodwinked by what is now a widespread “technique” and one that brings outrage to the vast majority of watching fans.

FIFA and national federations need to support their match officials in the continuing fight against underhand methods, which is the latest evolution in the game that never changes.

BERLIN — About a million jubilant Germans welcomed their triumphant national football team home to Berlin on Tuesday, many waving flags and banners saying “We are all World Champions!” as they basked in the nation’s fourth World Cup victory.

Hundreds of thousands of revellers packed Berlin’s “fan mile”, a 1.3km stretch of road running from the west of the capital up to the Brandenburg Gate, for a huge party. Many more lined the streets in the city centre along the team’s route.

The players danced and sang their way onto a stage at the Gate, a potent symbol of the Cold War, dressed in black
T-shirts with the
number 1 emblazoned on them and threw footballs into the crowd.

“We’re all world champions!” coach Joachim Loew told the crowd.

“Of course, it was a long way to the title, and an incredibly tough one in the end. But we’re incredibly happy to be here with the fans now.”

“Without you we wouldn’t be here. We are all world champions,” low-key Loew, affectionately known as Jogi, told the fans, many of them holding red posters with the words “Thanks Boys”.

Young and old fans alike were decked out in Germany shirts, many with their faces painted black, red and gold and with wigs and bandanas in the national colours. Many had started drinking beer hours before the team’s arrival from Brazil.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, it’s something to remember,” said Sabine Kopf, 42, who travelled by train from the western city of Cologne with her husband and 11-year-old son who wore a shirt with “Jogi’s Joker” on the back.

A black open-roofed bus drove the players, who jumped, screamed, waved and held up the golden World Cup trophy, through the streets of Berlin at a snail’s pace for about 2-1/2 hours.

“I am really excited to welcome the World Cup winners during my lifetime. I am from East Germany and this is important,” said Guenther Richter, 51, from East Berlin.

Sunday’s 1-0 victory over Argentina in Rio de Janeiro marked the first time a reunified Germany has been world champion, with West Germany having won the trophy in 1954, 1974 and 1990.

Pride

The success of the national team since 2006, when Germany hosted the World Cup, is widely seen as having helped Germans take greater pride in their nationality. History had previously made them uncomfortable about displaying such feelings.

Television channels blanketed the airwaves with coverage of the party and newspapers dedicated whole editions to the win.

“This is what four feels like!” splashed top-selling Bild on its front cover, with a picture of the team with hands raised.

“Welcome, World Champions!” Berliner Zeitung wrote on its front page.

Football enthusiast Chancellor Angela Merkel watched the match in Rio and had pictures taken in the dressing room with the exhausted but jubilant players afterwards.

However, she did not receive them on Tuesday as she was in Croatia. Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit welcomed the team in Berlin and the players signed the city’s roll of honour.

A roar went up from the crowd in the “fan mile” when the team’s plane circled overhead. “Football’s coming home!” bellowed fans when it touched down at the airport.

Captain Philipp Lahm led the team down the plane’s stairs holding above his head the golden trophy secured in Sunday’s final, with midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger close behind him wrapped in a German flag.

“We all saw each other here in 2006. But now we’ve got the damned thing,” Schweinsteiger, who got a battering during the final match and ended up with a bloody cut under his eye, told the fans in the city centre.

Germany snatched the win in extra time with a stunning goal from fresh-faced Mario Goetze, a 22-year-old boy wonder who got a hero’s welcome when he danced onto the Berlin stage.

“This is an unbelievable feeling. It’s a dream,” he beamed.

It’s indescribable,” fan Till Uhlig from Hannover said of the crowds.

People travelled to the celebration from all over the country: “They’ve all taken their holidays to come here. It’s absolutely crazy,” he said. “We were behind the stage where the bus pulled up. Just incredible.

Berlin resident Katrin Fels, who brought her daughter, said: “We knew it would happen. It was clear from the start of the year that we had the best team. It’s perfect, perfect for all generations.”

MOSCOW — Brazil just barely managed to get everything ready in time for the World Cup. Russia insists it won’t have any such problems in 2018, although the country faces other issues ahead of football’s next showcase tournament — including the threat of racism and violence.

Just like in Brazil, the sheer size of Russia is set to cause logistical challenges for organisers and fans alike for the 2018 World Cup, with thousands of kilometres separating some of the host cities. But the successful staging of February’s Winter Olympics without any major organisational problems has raised Russians’ confidence in producing a high-class tournament.

After the games, Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko told parliament that Russia would avoid the “Brazilian scenario” of massive construction delays.

Of the 12 stadiums in 11 host cities, two are complete but must be reconfigured to host football games. A third, the Spartak Stadium in Moscow, will open in September. The others, including Moscow’s 81,000-capacity Luzhniki where the final will be played, are brand new projects where construction has either started or will begin this year.

The Russian government insists it will complete the stadiums on time, although Mutko told local media in March that some aspects of the design process “gave cause for disquiet” as deadlines were missed.

“That is normal working concern,” organising committee head Alexei Sorokin told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “That does not mean we are lying down calmly and waiting for things to happen. It suggests that we are... attentive to it.”

Six stadiums still need to go through a design certification process before construction enters full swing.

“All of the projects are being developed pretty much at the same speed, with one or two exceptions,” architect Peter Lavelle of the Populous firm, which designed the Kazan and Sochi stadiums and is working on the Saransk and Rostov-on-Don arenas, told The Associated Press.

But as long as projects remain uncertified, delays are inevitable, warned construction analyst Vitalie Iambla of consultancy firm PMR.

“We will have also stadiums built a few weeks or months before the first whistle of the tournament,” he said, adding that rising building material costs and the ruble’s decline against other currencies over the last year are likely to cause cost overruns.

The government’s model for the new stadiums is the Kazan Arena, which opened on time last year costing around $400 million and will be a World Cup stadium. The St. Petersburg stadium, however, is a sign of what can go wrong. The 69,000-capacity arena, which will host a 2018 semi-final, is scheduled to open in 2016, far beyond its one-time finishing date of December 2008. During that time, construction has been marred by delays while costs have soared to $1.1 billion, something Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has labelled “disgraceful”.

But a bigger issue may be fan racism, after several incidents in Russian club football in recent years.

Monkey chants aimed at Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure by CSKA Moscow fans during a Champions League game in November earned the Russian club the first of two UEFA racism sanctions last season, and highlighted Russian football’s problems with discrimination and violence. Last season also saw a swastika flag waved at a Spartak Moscow game and a violent pitch invasion by Zenit St. Petersburg supporters in which an opposition player was punched in the head.

“Russian football is a making certain efforts towards combating [racism],” Sorokin said. “This thing exists everywhere, we are no exception. So we are going to do what we can.”

Some Russian clubs’ fans have shown they are “on a different planet in terms of their mindset”, said Piara Powar, head of anti-discrimination group FARE, which is monitoring Russia ahead of 2018. “We have football fans going on the rampage, looking to attack visible ethnic minorities. So in that sense, I think that the whole shebang is there and it’s getting worse.”

Last year, Russia passed its fan law, which introduces stadium bans for troublemakers at sports events. Powar said the law is “very stringent” but needs to be accompanied by education initiatives.

The budget for the World Cup has been set at 660 billion rubles ($19.24 billion), but the question of total costs is thorny. The official figure covers the stadiums and some stadium-related infrastructure, but not other developments such as around $20 billion of rail upgrades linked to the World Cup preparations by the Transport Ministry.

Another worry for Russia is the performance of its team, which was knocked out in the group stage in Brazil without winning a game. That poor performance has put coach Fabio Capello’s job in question, while renewed focus is being given to developing young players for 2018 and even naturalising foreign talent, a suggestion that in recent months has been mooted in government.

However, one thing is on Russia’s side. As host, it will not need to qualify.

RIO DE JANEIRO — Argentina captain Lionel Messi won FIFA’s “Golden Ball” award as the best player of the World Cup after leading his team to Sunday’s final and Colombia’s James Rodriguez finished as the tournament’s top scorer with six goals.

Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, who kept a clean sheet as his side beat Argentina 1-0 in extra time to claim their fourth World Cup, was awarded the “Golden Gloves” as the tournament’s top keeper.

Four-time world player of the year Messi had a quiet game by his standards on Sunday but was the driving force behind Argentina’s push to their first World Cup final since 1990.

He scored four of their six goals in the group stage, set up Angel di Maria’s winner in the last 16 against Switzerland and shouldered the burden of slotting home Argentina’s first penalty in their shootout win over the Netherlands in the semifinals.

Messi also won four successive man-of-the-match awards against Bosnia, Iran, Argentina and Switzerland.

A despondent Messi took little consolation in the award.

“It’s a sad prize which I won, because we wanted to lift the World Cup trophy for Argentina.”

While some pundits thought Messi looked jaded after the group stage and did not influence his team as much, Argentina coach Alejandro Sabella said he was a deserving winner.

“I think Lionel reached the pantheon of the greats a while back,” Sabella told reporters. “Yes, I think he deserved it. He played a great World Cup to get us where he did.

“I think it’s very deserved.”

Germany forward Thomas Mueller was runner-up to Messi and Netherlands winger Arjen Robben was third.

Mueller also came runner-up behind Rodriquez for the Golden Boot award. The Germany forward finished with five goals, one behind the Colombian attacking midfielder.

France midfielder Paul Pogba was named young player of the tournament, while Colombia took the Fair Play award after receiving just five yellow cards in five matches in Brazil.

FIFA also praised their positive play and the behaviour of their players and officials.

BERLIN/RIO DE JANEIRO — It’s been a long wait, and now Germany is basking in its fourth World Cup title.

The Die Welt newspaper celebrated Monday with a three-word headline in the national colours of black, red and gold that read simply: “It is true,” while Der Spiegel magazine’s website listed Germany’s titles: “1954. 1974. 1990. 2014!”

Midfielder Mario Goetze, who wasn’t born when Germany won its last World Cup, sealed the title with his extra-time goal. “THANK GOETZ! World champions!” screamed the mass-circulation daily Bild.

“Super Mario gets the fourth star!” read the headline in Berlin tabloid Berliner Kurier.

German astronaut Alexander Gerst congratulated the team from the International Space Station on its “top performance”. He tweeted a picture of himself in a Germany jersey with an extra fourth star — “as experts on stars, we already got one”.

Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer said after the match: “All of Germany is the world champion.”

The theme was picked up by a top official in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party, Peter Tauber, who tweeted, “Good morning, you world champions out there!”

Merkel and President Joachim Gauck, who travelled together to the final in Rio de Janeiro, posed for pictures with the team and the trophy. And there was another selfie with a beaming chancellor for forward Lukas Podolski, weeks after Merkel dropped into the dressing room during a visit to Germany’s opening match.

It’s Germany’s first World Cup title as a reunited nation, though that fact drew barely any attention in German media. West Germany’s 1990 win came with the country just three months away from reunification; united Germany won the 1996 European Championship.

About a quarter of a million fans celebrated into the night at the packed “fan mile” in front of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, while car drivers blasted their horns into the early hours of the morning.

The party resumes on Tuesday morning, when coach Joachim Loew’s team is due to land at Berlin’s Tegel airport and then celebrate its triumph at the Brandenburg Gate.

The finance ministry said it will issue a special “Germany World Cup champion” postage stamp. But don’t expect Germany to declare a national holiday in celebration.

“There is no serious discussion of this,” government spokeswoman Christiane Wirtz said. 

United as one

United they stand, right at the top of the football world.

And right on South American soil.

Germany won its fourth title, but its first since a country torn apart by political divisions at the end of World War II was finally glued back together.

“It was always my dream to get on the summit and look down,” said Miroslav Klose, a Polish-born Germany striker who is a perfect example of the country’s unification and its diversity. “Incredible.”

The Germany victory at the iconic Maracana Stadium was special for another reason, too. The Germans became the first European team to win a World Cup in the Americas, coming after they humiliated host Brazil 7-1 in the semifinals and then got the best of Argentina and Lionel Messi 1-0 in the final.

Along the way, Klose set the record for World Cup goals, scoring his 16th in the rout over Brazil to push himself ahead of Brazil striker Ronaldo.

Klose didn’t score on Sunday at the Maracana, however. Instead, it was the man who replaced him in the 88th minute, Mario Goetze, that did.

Goetze’s moment of brilliance, chesting the ball to control it and then volleying past Argentina goalkeeper Sergio Romero deep in extra time, was just another sample of the teamwork that has lifted this tightly knit Germany setup to the top.

“The team did it beautifully,” said Manuel Neuer, voted the best goalkeeper of the tournament. “At some point we’ll stop celebrating, but we’ll still wake up with a smile.”

After winning the World Cup title in 1954, West Germany turned itself into a powerhouse on the field. The west side of the divided nation later won the 1972 European Championship and then the 1974 World Cup, playing as the host.

Another European title came in 1980, followed a loss to Italy in the 1982 World Cup final. The West Germans again reached the final in 1986, but lost to an Argentina team led by Diego Maradona in Mexico. They got their revenge four years later, beating the Argentines in 1990 to win the World Cup for a third time.

Their lone major title as a united country came at Euro 96, when they beat the Czech Republic in the final at another of football’s grandest venues, Wembley Stadium. But they have come very close many times since, losing to Brazil in the 2002 final and reaching the semifinals in both 2006 and 2010.

Argentina has now come up short against Germany in three straight World Cups. The Argentines also lost to the Germans in the quarter-finals at the last two tournaments.

“This was our chance, and we felt that way,” said Argentina midfielder Javier Mascherano, perhaps the team’s most important player behind Messi. “We couldn’t do it. We have to lift our head and suffer the pain.”

For Brazilian fans, still hurting after the drubbing by Germany and still sad about the broken back that ruled Neymar out of the final games of the World Cup, Sunday’s result comes with a sigh of relief.

The five-time champions have now hosted the World Cup twice, and come up short both times. In 1950, Brazil lost to Uruguay in the final match, forever known around here as the Maracanazo. This year, after getting trounced by Germany, many Brazilians believed a win for Argentina, Brazil’s biggest rival, would have hurt almost as much.

Germany, by way of Goetze’s goal in the 113th minute, took care of that problem.

“You just shoot that goal in, you don’t really know what’s happening,” Goetze said. “And then at the end of the match, having a party with the team, the whole country... it is for us, a dream come true.”

This time, it’s for all Germans.

RIO DE JANEIRO — It’s the day of the last World Cup finale in Brazil. Pele is nine years old. Back then, he’s just Edson Arantes do Nascimento.

Edson has been playing outside. He rushes into his house and notices his father is crying. Brazil has just lost to Uruguay at its sacred Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. The nation has been thrown into mourning.

“Eight years later in the World Cup in Sweden I saw my father cry again but with happiness because we won the World Cup,” Pele said on Saturday, the eve of the final’s return after 64 years to the Maracana.

He adds: “I have luck.”

With that first World Cup triumph in Stockholm in 1958 (the 17-year-old Pele scored twice in the final), a footballer and a team of Brazilians began a World Cup legacy that captured five titles, three of them for the man now known as Pele. No team or player can match that record.

Pele told the AP he picked four teams to do well at this World Cup: finalists Germany and Argentina, and Brazil and Spain. Spain, the defending champion, was knocked out in the first round.

“I missed on Spain but I think everyone missed.”

For Pele, Germany is the best team and should win the World Cup, and he insisted his opinion was not based on Brazil’s fierce rivalry with Argentina and the possibility that they could lift the trophy at Brazil’s Maracana.

“We are neighbours. No problem. We are brothers,” he said, laughing now. “But, of course, if you be reasonable, honest, Germany is the better team. A more organised team. But this is the game: You never know what is going to happen.”

Brazilian star Neymar’s back injury, which ruled the man who now wears Pele’s No. 10 shirt out of the semifinals, was the most memorable moment of the tournament for Pele for the wrong reasons. And Brazil’s 7-1 semifinal rout by Germany was “a disaster”, he said.

“When you have a disaster, there’s no reason, no explanation,” he said. “You cannot have an answer for that. No way. This is football. A box of surprises.” He said he still thought Brazil’s football federation should stick with coach Luiz Felipe Scolari and the young team.

There was “no doubt” in Pele’s eyes that Brazil’s World Cup was an overall success: “We hope to finish the way we’ve been [going]... with peace, beautiful games, a lot of people in the stadium.”

The interview ends with the recollections of 1950 and his father, who was also a footballer, but only for a local team. And then Pele switches back to this World Cup. He just can’t seem to shrug off that heavy loss to Germany.

“This World Cup, I thought I don’t want my son to see me cry,” Pele said. “He didn’t see me cry but very sad.”

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilians already downhearted at missing out on reaching the World Cup final watched in dismay Saturday as their national team lost to the Netherlands 3-0 in the third-place match.

Across the nation, fans hoping for some measure of redemption were crushed as Brazil failed to score and said their only solace was that the country managed to put on a good World Cup show for the world.

Brazilian soldier Julio Cesar Carioca compared his connection with Brazil’s team to life itself.

“You go into things with great expectations, but rarely do those expectations play out in reality,” Carioca said. “It’s football. Things happen.”

In Rio, tens of thousands of fans watched the game on a massive TV on Copacabana Beach and the mostly Brazilian crowd stood in silence as the Netherlands knocked in one goal after another.

Argentine fans who have flooded into the city ahead of their country’s final match against Germany on Sunday cheered and chanted songs mocking Brazil’s football prowess.

At the Alzirao street fest in Rio where thousands cheered Brazil in earlier tournament games, only a few hundred showed up on Saturday and small business owner Angelica Morellato Seabra was among them wearing Brazil’s national team jersey. She was disgusted with the outcome.

“I’m trying to forget the whole thing, but it’s going to be difficult,” said Seabra, 56. “If you draw you forget, but if you lose like we do, forgetting is impossible.”

On Copacabana Beach, university student Luiz de Almeira shook his head in dismay each time Brazil seemed like it would score but missed opportunities.

“I’m proud of being Brazilian but I’m mad because we could have been making history,” the 20-year-old business major said. “The team has not shown what it is capable of doing and the only salvation is that Brazil has managed to show it could pull off a good World Cup.”

Nathalia Gomes, an 18-year-old high school student, said she hoped Brazil’s World Cup would be remembered more for the people’s hospitality than for the national team’s losses, especially Brazil’s 7-1 thrashing by Germany.

“This World Cup should go down in history for the friendliness of the fans, for the party we through and not for the 7-1 defeat,” said Gomes, who watched the game from Alzirao.

Artur Jose, a 33-year-old administrative assistant, said Brazil’s team for the 2014 tournament will be remembered as its worst ever.

“We didn’t have any sort of strategy, no cohesion, no game and only one good player,” he said, referring to Neymar, who was knocked out of the competition with an injury. “The one good thing that might come out of this humiliation would be if people remember this feeling at the ballot boxes during the elections” in October to select a new president.

“Brazil is going through hard times: On the pitch and off,” he said.

Concerns that Russia’s preparations for the 2018 version could suffer due to the political crisis in Ukraine were dismissed on Saturday by Vitaly Mutko, Russia’s sports minister who is also a member of FIFA’s executive committee.

“I can’t see any major issues,” he said in Rio de Janeiro. “It’s a different subject and one that will not interfere in the preparations for the World Cup at all.”

While many Brazilians objected to the billions spent to put on the World Cup, few protests materialised during the event. But 66-year-old Magali Garcia Linares said the team’s terrible performance reinforced her opposition to big spending by Brazil for international sporting events. The country next hosts the 2016 Olympics.

“How can you hold an event like this in a country with zero health, zero education?” she asked. “The quantities that were spent were vast and in vain. For this World Cup, the only things that were done were the visible things that foreigners would see and notice. The invisible things, things that really matter, were left undone.”

‘Life goes on’

Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari is leaving his future in the hands of the country’s football federation.

Scolari led Brazil to their fifth World Cup title in 2002 and has lost just four times in 29 matches since taking over in November 2012, but many fans have been calling for his head in the wake of Brazil’s heaviest ever World Cup defeat on Tuesday.

“That has to be decided by the president of the confederation,” Scolari told a news conference when asked about his future.

“When we started we had a deadline to make our jobs available at the end of the World Cup regardless of the result,” added the 65-year-old.

“And that is exactly what we’re going to do with a final report for the president.

Whoever is tasked with the goal of taking Brazil back to the summit of world football faces a massive job.

Minus the mercurial talents of injured forward Neymar, Brazil look bereft of ideas and far short of the level needed to challenge the likes of Argentina and Germany.

Defenders Thiago Silva and David Luiz were guilty of early mistakes on Saturday as the Dutch scored twice in 16 minutes, sparking fears of a repeat of Tuesday’s 7-1 humiliation.

Goals from Robin van Persie, Daley Blind and Georginio Wijnaldum secured third place for the Netherlands.

“Today’s match... for us was the best way to end this tournament,” said man of the match Arjen Robben. “We also fully deserved this third place the way we played this tournament.

“Nobody expected us to be in the last four.”

RIO DE JANEIRO — The best player in the world goes up against the ultimate team machine, on the world’s biggest stage.

When Lionel Messi’s Argentina takes on Germany in Sunday’s World Cup final, it looks at first glance like a meeting between brilliant individual scoring talent and the tight discipline of a collective unit.

But this game will be about much more than that.

Argentina has shown that it can play just as tactically as the Germans, eking out narrow victories and doing whatever is needed to win. Germany, meanwhile, has put on two of the most explosive displays of the tournament — beating Portugal 4-0 in its opening game and then demolishing host Brazil 7-1 in the semifinals.

Add in the rich history between these two teams — who faced each other in two straight World Cup finals in 1986 and 1990, winning one each — and it’s anyone’s guess who will come out on top at the Maracana Stadium.

Here is a look at how the two finalists compare:

Goalkeepers:

Manuel Neuer’s reputation as one of the best goalkeepers in the world has only grown in Brazil, where he has been one of Germany’s best players throughout the tournament, especially in the knockout rounds. Aside from being a first-class shot stopper, the Bayern Munich goalkeeper showed his versatility by repeatedly rushing out to help the defence in the second-round win over Algeria. He then made key saves to deny Karim Benzema an equaliser for France in the quarter-finals, and a number of impressive stops against Brazil.

Sergio Romero has answered most sceptics who questioned whether he was good enough to play for a top team in a World Cup. Romero was only a backup for his club Monaco this past season, but came through big in the penalty shoot-out against the Netherlands with two saves to send his team into the final. He has kept three straight clean sheets in the knockout rounds, but will face his greatest challenge yet against the clinical Germans.

Advantage: Germany

Defence:

Germany’s defence has improved vastly since coach Joachim Loew took captain Philip Lahm out of midfield and put him back in his favoured position as right back after an erratic display against Algeria in the second round. Mats Hummels has been a steady anchor in central defence, and Germany had little trouble neutralising the explosive attacks of both France and Brazil. Whether they can deal with Messi is another matter.

Argentina’s defence was seen as its main weakness going into the World Cup, but the team has now gone 330 minutes without conceding a goal in the knockout rounds — including two extra time periods. The back four, which includes Manchester City duo Pablo Zabaleta and Martin Demichelis, made Dutch strikers Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie look plain ordinary.

Advantage: Germany

Midfield:

This is Germany’s biggest strength, a unit without weakness that plays together as a well-oiled machine. Bastian Schweinsteiger and Sami Khedira shore things up defensively while Toni Kroos and Mesut Ozil direct most of the attacks going forward. Germany’s ruthless display against Brazil was orchestrated by the clinical efficiency of its midfield, and a similar display on Sunday might just be too much for Argentina to handle as well.

The Argentines, meanwhile, are hoping that Angel Di Maria will recover from a thigh injury to play in the final. Di Maria’s pace and ability to take on defenders on the wing was sorely missed against the Netherlands, when his team struggled to find ways forward. Defensive midfielder Javier Mascherano was one of the best players on the pitch against the Netherlands and is the key to keeping Germany in check.

Advantage: Germany 

Attack:

Germany has the highest-scoring player in World Cup history in Miroslav Klose. But Argentina has Messi, and two other top forwards to boot. While Messi hasn’t scored in the three knockout games, his four goals in the group stage reminded everyone of why he’s a four-time world player of the year. Even with Sergio Aguero and Gonzalo Higuain in the team, Messi has always been the key to Argentina’s success — and never more so than in the biggest game of his career. For Argentina to have a chance, Messi will have to create goals — either for himself or for his teammates.

Germany aren’t bad up front either: Klose netted his 16th career World Cup goal against Brazil, and his teammate Thomas Mueller already has 10 in just two tournaments.

Advantage: Argentina

RIO DE JANEIRO — Germany expects them the experience that runs through its team to give the edge over Argentina in Sunday’s World Cup final after admitting they restrained themselves when they thumped Brazil in the semifinals.

Germany ruined the samba nation’s dream of winning the World Cup when it hammered Brazil 7-1 on Tuesday but forward Thomas Mueller revealed it could have been worse.

The Europeans were leading 5-0 at halftime and decided during the break that they would not embarrass the hosts by showboating with fancy passes or trick shots.

“With the score the way it was, we said we should avoid being arrogant and to refrain from humiliating the opponent,” Mueller said on Friday.

“There was this agreement and it came from the players themselves.”

Mueller, one of 10 names short-listed for the Golden Boot award given to the best player of the tournament, said Germany was anticipating a much tougher match from Argentina so could not afford to let up at any stage against the South Americans.

“I’m not expecting that we’ll be ahead 5-0 at halftime again like against Brazil even though that would be nice,” he said.

“It could end up being a tight match like against Algeria or France. But it doesn’t matter. We know what we have to do.”

Germany captain Philipp Lahm also said there was no room for sentiment in the final, adding that his team was single-minded in their approach to the game.

“We’re here to win the World Cup,” he told reporters at Germany’s secluded training camp at Santo Andre. “The experience we’ve got all the way through our team is definitely an edge for us.”

End of an era

Regardless of the result, Sunday’s match will mark the end of the road for Argentina manager Alejandro Sabella, who is stepping down, according to his agent.

A former midfielder who was capped eight times by Argentina, Sabella got involved in coaching after he retired as a player in 1989 and took on the national job in 2011.

“He’s going. He’s leaving whatever happens. Whether they are champions or not, a cycle is ending,” agent Eugenio Lopez said.

Argentina was fined 300,000 Swiss francs ($336,000) by FIFA on Friday for failing to bring players to four pre-match news conferences during the World Cup.

However, the sport’s world governing body did pick three of their players — Lionel Messi, Angel Di Maria and midfielder Javier Mascherano — for the Golden Boot shortlist.

Germany had four players selected, Mueller and Lahm plus Mats Hummels and Toni Kroos, while Colombia midfielder James Rodriguez, Netherlands forward Arjen Robben and Brazil’s Neymar, who was injured in the quarter-finals, were also nominated. 

Italian connection

Nicola Rizzoli of Italy will referee the World Cup final.

With a European and South American team playing, many had expected FIFA to appoint an Asian referee for Sunday’s game. But Rizzoli got the call to work his third Argentina match at this year’s World Cup.

“It is unbelievable for me,” Rizzoli said in a video interview released Friday by FIFA. “I represent Italy in this moment. I want to be one of the best for sure, and I will.”

He is the second Italian to referee the final in the past four World Cups. Pierluigi Collina refereed when Germany lost to Brazil 2-0 in the 2002 final in Yokohama, Japan.

Now head of UEFA refereeing, Collina has been a strong supporter of his compatriot’s career.

Rizzoli was the referee for the all-German Champions League final in 2013, when Bayern Munich beat Borussia Dortmund 2-1 in London.

FIFA Refereeing Committee Chairman Jim Boyce said earlier Friday that Rizzoli would get the duty.

“We choose the best referees for the best matches, and the Italian will referee the final,” Boyce said.

Rizzoli has already worked three matches at this year’s World Cup, including Argentina’s quarter-final victory over Belgium and a group win over Nigeria. He also handled the high-profile match between the Netherlands and Spain on the second day of the tournament.

FIFA head of refereeing Massimo Busacca also said that match officials have improved the football at this year’s World Cup.

Busacca said their understanding of the game helped increase the number of goals scored and playing time per match from four years ago in South Africa.

Meanwhile, referees have awarded fewer fouls and yellow cards in Brazil than in 2010.

“Football won in this competition,” said Busacca, a former World Cup referee.

FIFA also said the 95 injuries at this World Cup, seven classed as severe, were a reduction of 40 per cent.

“When we compare all the matches we can be really satisfied,” Busacca said.